By Karen Zraick
Brooklyn teachers, approaching two years of working without a contract, took part in three marches last week, as their union stepped up pressure on the city with a new ad campaign. “We’re almost two years without a contract and people feel that the mayor and the chancellor have not negotiated in good faith,” said Michael Shulman, an English teacher at Fort Hamilton High School, 8301 Shore Road, and the school’s acting United Federation of Teachers Representative. Shulman is also one of five teachers who sit on the union’s contract negotiating committee. At Fort Hamilton, teachers and members of the school community marched to the Region 7 Learning Support Center at 415 89th Street. Teachers from the High School for Telecommunications, 350 67th Street; South Shore High School, 6565 Flatlands Avenue; and Westinghouse High School, 105 Tech Place, also marched to local Department of Education (DOE) offices. Many are also upset with DOE policies, charging that the newly revamped agency is micromanaging classroom activity. “Ever since this new DOE came in under Chancellor Klein, teachers have been forced to teach in a robotic, Stepford-type style,” said Frank Volpicella, a New Utrecht High School teacher and UFT vice president. “Teachers are not given the discretion, even though they are the professionals, on the methods that they think are best for children to learn,” he added. He charged that the DOE has mandated teachers use workshop-style instructional methods, such as the use of small groups, instead of leaving such decisions to teachers. “There are other methods that teachers use and that is a lack of respect,” for the DOE to mandate a particular method, Volpicella said. “We’re professionals and we’re not being treated fairly,” Volpicella charged. Shulman said that at Fort Hamilton, though, teachers have a “supportive and positive” administration and don’t feel they’re being encroached upon in the classroom. Fellow Fort Hamilton English teacher Gloria Mingione echoed his comments. “To work at Fort Hamilton is probably the best thing that you can ask for as a teacher,” she said. “But not to have the contract is very frustrating. We don’t feel the mayor is giving us the respect we deserve.” Assemblyman Peter Abbate and City Council members Vincent Gentile and Domenic Recchia also spoke at the march. Afterwards, Abbate blasted the DOE. “I’ve seen the whole system really go downhill since the mayor took control,” he charged, calling some of the policies “smoke and mirrors.” DOE Spokesperson Alicia Maxey responded to a reporter’s request for comment in an emailed statement. “Our focus is on continuing to reform and improve the education of the City’s children and we will not be distracted by the UFT’s political agenda or PR tactics. The DOE does not discuss contract negotiations with the media – that is done at the bargaining table,” she wrote. By Joe Maniscalco Community Board 11 may have submitted its qualified endorsement of the city’s Solid Waste Management Plan [SWMP], but that hasn’t stopped residents from denouncing the proposal. Residents opposed to the opening of a new Marine Transfer Station on the site of the defunct Southwest incinerator at 1824 Shore Parkway expressed their continued opposition to the SWMP at the board’s April meeting held last week at Holy Family Home on 84th Street. Former State Senator Seymour Lachman was among them. “I am afraid that this is going to become another Fresh Kills Landfill,” he said. “I also feel that there are two communities in Brooklyn that are being taken advantage of – one is Sunset Park and one is Bensonhurst.” Community Board 11 threw its support behind the plan with a number of provisos after holding a public forum on the issue last month. “The board did vote that it could move to the next level,” said Community Board 11 Chairperson Bill Guarinello. “So, we actually have no other position that Board 11 can take. We can’t undo a vote. I think that the time for us to respond is over.” Despite that position, many in Bensonhurst dread the prospect of increased truck traffic and dredging that the SWMP indicates. A number of local elected officials like City Councilmember Domenic Recchia have already come out against the plan. Assemblymember Bill Colton has urged Speaker Gifford Miller – currently campaigning to be the next mayor — to kill it in the City Council. Community Board 11 District Manager Howard Feuer says the city needs to find a new way to handle its trash – and fast. The convoy of trucks hauling trash from Community Districts 11, 12, 13 and 15 under the SWMP, he argued, would roughly amount to the same number of trucks that used to carry garbage to the old Southwest incinerator. “Red Hook is going to have six districts,” he said. “We’re only going to have four.” The Department of Sanitation recently sent a letter to Community Board 11 addressing some of the reservations expressed by the community, like truck traffic and dredging. “In order for them to dredge, they’re going to have to go to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation,’ said Feuer. “They are more concerned about fish, wildlife and pollution than anyone else. So, the Sanitation Department will have to satisfy the DEC before they can even get a permit to dredge. It’s the DEC’s belief that they can do this carefully and without any disturbance.” At a rally held earlier this month, Colton called the board’s support for the SWMP a “mistake.” “They pointed out the deficiencies in the plan, but rather than disapprove it and make suggestions about what must be done to make it better, unfortunately they voted to approve it. Well, you know when you tell a powerful city government, we approve what you’re doing, but pleas consider the following recommendations. They say thanks for the approval and then they forget about the changes,” Colton said. Colton charges that the entire Draft Environmental Impact Study meant to highlight potential problems with the SWMP is being rushed through. “The more time that people have to ask questions, the clearer it becomes how rotten this plan is and how bad it is for the entire city,” he said. The City Council is expected to hold a hearing on the SWMP on April 21 at 1 p.m. at 250 Broadway, 14th floor. “Pressure has to be brought to bear directly on the Speaker of the City Council,” said Colton. “He has no right for our support for mayor if he does not stop this plan.”
